Isn't Gamma Phi one of the most "recently established" sororities on campus? From what I've seen and read about traditional SEC campuses, It can be very hard on the "newest" (and not traditionally Southern) organizations to gain ground on a campus where there are such dyed in the wool preconceptions about where PNM's want to be members...(ex. their mother, sister, grandmother were all XYZ's there)

I am very proud of my sisters and all the hard work they put into recruitment this year and I welcome the new members to our Gamma Phi Beta family!! :)

SDT definately participated in rush at Bama.

My daughter has heard about two girls from our area that did not get bids...so they could still be "snapped"? If they didn't drop out voluntarily?

From what I understand, yes. My source is a active Phi Mu alum from Bama saying that they are currently still matching up snap bids today. Might explain why no results have been published yet - not on UA's website, or the Tuscaloosa News.

If they put SDT on their card (or any others that are eligible for snap) they can.

Congratulations
 

to your daughter - she is lucky to have such an interested mom!

My daughter thinks that pi phi, tridelta, and adpi all made over quota...so can they still snap? Sorry for all the questions...I feel so bad for those other girls...I am hoping it can still work out for them.

[QUOTE=FloridaTish]Isn't Gamma Phi one of the most "recently established" sororities on campus? From what I've seen and read about traditional SEC campuses, It can be very hard on the "newest" (and not traditionally Southern) organizations to gain ground on a campus where there are such dyed in the wool preconceptions about where PNM's want to be members...(ex. their mother, sister, grandmother were all XYZ's there) QUOTE]

I believe they were established in the 80's...could be wrong though. I think they came to campus after either DG was kicked off or Sigma Kappa...not 100% sure of that though.

Our sorority at UGA, has been on campus for about 40 years. It took at least thirty years for our chapter to become a "known sorority". Now we are at the top. Some of the older houses that haved been there FOREVER and are Southern born & bred, are now seeing us as a legimate house. It has taken a long time. Gamma Phi will get there, and they will be awsome. It just takes some time and effort and training the minds of the "old" school, that you are someone, they need to sit back and take notice of. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!

[QUOTE=bamabelle99]Gamma Phi Beta chartered its Bama chapter in 1988 - the same year Alpha Xi Delta left. DG left campus in 1978.

What do you mean by "at the top"? Are you talking about the infamous SEC "tiers"?

Not to criticize SigKap Dawg, becuase I know she was being supportive by using her own sorority as an example, but as long as the "established" sororities are constantly labeled by these "tiers", it really gives the PNM's a skewed sense of the sororities. Referring to your sorority as the "top" shows your pride, but at the same time can demean another sorority on campus by putting them in a lower supposed tier that perpetuates the myth that there is something off with that chapter. It circulates in the "tent talk" and gets passed on from one PNM to another.

I trust that Gamma Phi Beta is working as hard as possible to be the best chapter they can be and I am proud to call them my sisters. Compared to the other sororities at Alabama, they are new in the eyes of the campus!

Is DZ an "established" or "SEC tier" sorority at Bama, or generally speaking in the South? I think Auburn has a decent-sized chapter, but you can put all my sorority knowledge in a baby's booty with room left over.

They've been at Bama since 1922 (same year Chi Omega was established) and are everywhere in the SEC except Arkansas and Ole Miss, I believe. The LSU chapter has been making quota for 40-something years.

*sigh* I really hope that all this "top house" & "top tier" stuff goes away. It doesn't matter where your sorority is ranked IMO. All that should matter is the fact that you find your sisters there & are happy. All the rest is just nonsense.

/climbs off soapbox

Numbers
 

This is actually my first post on Greek Chat in a LONG time (I was an active poster a couple years back, but I've forgotten my login info :o ), but I've been a lurker for a while. Some of the recruitment stories have prompted me to reply.

I went to a school with sororities that were polarized numbers-wise. Unfortunately, it is extremely challenging for the smallest chapter to do well on a campus where the other sororities are so much bigger. Once this cycle is started, it's hard to get out. In the case of my school, one of our eight sororities was forced to leave campus (after only being there for around five years) just because their small numbers hurt them each year during rush.

From my experience, here's what often happens: PNMs are overwhelmed during the first round of parties and look for all kinds of reasons to order and eliminate sororities. One of the easiest ways for them to do this is by judging on chapter size. If they go into a room that is only half as full as the last house they were at, they often make a snap judgement on the quality of that chapter. Unfortunately, those chapters often don't get a fair shake - even if qualities of the chapter and its members are "superior" to much larger groups. As someone that was on Panhellenic exec. and a Rho Chi two years, I cannot tell you how painful it was to hear the same thing over and over from PNMs ("That's the small sorority, right?" or "Something must be wrong with them, because they're so much smaller than XYZ.")

I wish there was an easy way to remedy this problem on campuses. COR is of course an option that most small chapters work very hard at, but c'mon, you're not going to COR 60 women. I wish more Panhellenics saw these types of situations as a danger to their whole council, but not all of them do. Not until all the smaller houses are gone and the big ones are left to cannibalize each other do they sit up and take notice. :(

Well put sister!!!:)

WOW! another banner BAMA recruitment!!
 

Congratulations to all of the BAMA chapters on their recruitments! Are the final numbers available yet for how many each chapter received (including quota additions, snaps)?

Thanks!

I remember that time and you are so correct , SigKap Dawg!! I did not attend UGA but a very good friend of mine from high school was a Sigma Kappa at UGA in the early/mid 80's when that chapter had a hard time meeting quota and so forth. She always spoke so highly of Sigma Kappa and would talk about what a great reputation you all have nationally---And, now you all are definitely getting the recognition you deserve! :)

I wish all the girls going thru rush could step back and see the bigger Panhellenic picture. Nationally all the sororities are good, viable women's organizations that support their members etc. It's just that regionally some sororities may be stronger than others..and for some reason THAT seems to be more noticeable in the south. I have said it before, sororities that are BIG (or "top") in the south may not be top - much less even heard of - on the west coast for instance....

Just being part of NPC is something to be proud of!
:)

Bama dad
 

One of the best woman I have ever known was DZ at Alabama in the seventies. They've been rushing, pledging and initiating some of the best women the south for a long time.

oh yea - I don't totally understand the tier thing at bama - because some of the oldest chapter's might not be "known" as old row or whatever but either way bamadad KD is regionally good - I know a ton of KD alumnae in huntsville

ALSO - there will always be - THE GOOD CHAPTERS and THE BAD CHAPTERS at every school. . . but we all know things can "flipflop" in 5 years - not that the "best" chapter will be the worst but some times a class can go through that just doesnt recruit well - or a chapter would be known for winning homecoming and then go a couple of years without doing so. . .. etc

That is why I like being an advisor - I can stay for years and see the cycle.

Don't even get me started on the whole "Old Row" thing. I think it's soooooo silly. But then I'm just a "damn Yankee" so I'll never really get it. ;)

Exactly! And every NPC has their star chapters who are big, getting good grades, have great sisterhood and do a lot of community service and every NPC has their chapters who need some extra TLC to get them on the right track in one or more of those areas.

At the top, I mean, in our National organization. Also, we were founded in the North. It takes time for a chapter from the North to be recoginized at Southern schools, large or small. I'm sorry if, I hurt anyone's feelings. I did not mean too.

In some situations, perhaps it wouldn't hurt some of their Mothers (and Daddies) to do this as well.

Please note, this is directed toward those young ladies who felt they just had to withdraw after they did not receive the "correct" invitations.

This is so true...it's very hard when the other chapters (not ALL of them obviously) on campus, however, are dead set on those at the bottom staying at the bottom. I don't think that's the OVERALL opinion of the NPC on such campuses, but there are too many vocal people in those organizations that are perfectly fine seeing the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker and eventually wither away.

/soapbox

Thank you for understanding what I meant.

Oh my goodness, I got SO tired of hearing, "well I didn't get XYZ and ABC so I dropped out of rush."

BLAH

I will not identify the authors, but I received several private messages where certain moms told me of their extremely disappointing recruitment results, their daughters either being dropped completely or leaving early because they did not get their top choices. In particlar instances, they indicated they were looking for another university with less competitive recruitment.

What about some of the very small chapters at Bama! Can they not receive extra o surplus pnms to re-build their chapters? Make girls who did not receive bids from the big sororities happy, the small sororities happy, etc.... I hate seeing excellent candidates not finding a home. You can't tell me there were a ton of gils out there as nice or nicer than BamaDaughter DZ who would make great sisters. By the same token, the small sororities surely have wonderful girls as a base for further development. Am I missing something?

The results are in!

These are the results of the recommendations I wrote for Bama girls:

1 AOPi
2 GPhiB's
1 Kappa Delta
1 Zeta Tau Alpha

I'm happy that they all got bids. My favorite went GPhiB...but I really want an AXO in this bunch! There are two more Bid Days!

BamaDad, Quota is only part of the membership equation - the other part is Total. Every GLO has the same opportunity to reach Total, through Formal Recruitment or Continuous Open Recruitment (COR). Some chapters don't do well during Formal Recruitment, but have COR mastered, and vice versa.

Let's say that Total is 200, and Quota is set at 80.

ABC comes back to school with 150.
DEF comes back with 100.
GHI comes back with 50.

All three can take Quota, bringing the number of members to:
ABC: 230
DEF: 180
GHI: 130

ABC is finished with Recruitment for the year - they've reached both Quota and Total.

DEF can snapbid or COR twenty more women, to reach 200.

GHI can snapbid or COR seventy more women, to reach 200.

The best reason (to me) to reach Quota & Total immediately is that you then can concentrate on your studies - which is the reason you're in college in the first place. If you have to COR, you're still "on" until you finally reach Total - which can be brutal.

It's the most equitable system I've seen used over the years, and I've actually seen the "ABC" sororities help the smaller ones recruit - but not on an SEC campus.

I think its great they all got bids too but of course I am especially thrilled to hear of your Gamma Phi pledges!!:)

Thanks for the explanation.

LOL! My daddy used to wonder how I had Quota/Total down pat, but did so poorly in math!

No. 1, look at that top statement: "or leaving early because they did not get their top choices." Well, if you leave, it's 100 percent sure you won't pledge anywhere. These are the gals who wouldn't consider a smaller group anyway.
No. 2, I'm sure you've seen the list, and there are only 2 groups that did not make quota. Yes, it would be great if they would consider and pledge those groups, but they won't. If they had stayed with recruitment all the way, they would have pledged somewhere.
No. 3, not to make excuses for the sororities, but things are CRAZY during recruitment. Mistakes are made. PNMs are eliminated for the stupidest reasons, because the group HAS to release X amount of women.
Not all the girls on these pledging lists will stick around. Some will not show up at the house. Some will decide it's not for them and resign before initiation. Some will resign later. It's not a huge amount, but a good many won't be around 4 years from now.
And consider the fact that although about 25% of women students are Greek...there are still 75% out there that aren't.
There are many wonderful things to be gained from going greek, but it's not for everybody. Thank goodness! Makes life more interesting.
And take it from someone whose daughter was dropped during formal...the girls get over it WAY quicker than the mamas do. :o There's always COB/COR/"open rush," if a girl truly wants it. Some of us who joined that way have made pretty good members!

I've got the Alabama new member list convered to an Excel file. If anybody wants it, PM me. :)

They act like it's a really old tradition, but there was no such thing when I was there in the early 70s. Old Row referred to the fraternities left on the west end of University Boulevard.

They also have a super-duper-elite :rolleyes: category within Old Row called First Circle, designating the three oldest continuously operating chapters. Agreed that all the categorizing is silly and divisive.

Like I said, I don't fully grasp the significance of Old Row even though it's been explained to me many times. There are a lot of PNMs that say "I'm going Old Row or nothing". It's always been a killer for both the PNMs and the other Chapters for Six Party/Skit Day round because Old Row consists of 6. I'm really interested in seeing some stats for this year since it was now 7 parties.

Another little tidbit, I already heard of 1 young woman who was released from all her Chapters of choice who is now trying to transfer to another school with delayed or deferred Recruitment. This is not the first time I've heard of this situation either. I think this is incredibly sad because for me it implies that sorority life is more important than her education.

I've also heard of women and know a few personally that purposely attend another school in order to pledge a certain sorority. Then they transfer to the University they really wanted and want to transfer their sorority membership. I've received many calls from upset sisters when they realize too late that the new Chapter is not obligated to take them as actives (at least for ADPi, I can't speak for others). They are really disappointed to be placed on alum status.

One girl did that when I was in college (she was a year behind me).